Pilot in crash is jailed

An intoxicated pilot clipped a house and crashed his single-engine plane into a neighboring yard as he was approaching a private air strip near Downers Grove late Saturday, authorities said.

Sean Oskvarek of Woodridge is charged with operating an aircraft under the influence of drugs or alcohol, according to the DuPage County Sheriff's Department. He remained in jail in lieu of $100,000 bail Sunday.

Authorities would not discuss Oskvarek's alleged drug or alcohol consumption before the ill-fated flight, but Illinois law prohibits pilots from flying when their blood-alcohol level is 0.04 or more, half the legal limit for vehicle drivers.

Pilots also face steeper penalties for flying drunk. While a drunken motorist most likely would receive a misdemeanor charge for a first-time offense, Oskvarek, 45, has been charged with a Class 3 felony and could face 2 to 5 years in prison.

"Obviously, it's much more serious to fly while you're impaired," DuPage County State's Atty. Joe Birkett said. "But it's very rare. Pilots take public safety very seriously."

Like Illinois law, Federal Aviation Administration regulations consider a pilot impaired when his blood-alcohol level reaches or exceeds 0.04. FAA rules also state that the last drink can be consumed no less than eight hours before flying.

Oskvarek, who has a valid pilot's license, was the only person aboard the Cessna 182 at the time of the crash, authorities said. The aircraft is registered to his mother, Evangeline, who lives along the private air strip, about a half-mile from the accident site.

The plane was headed west toward a Brookeridge Air Park runway just after 11 p.m. Saturday when it clipped the roof of a house in the 8400 block of Kentwood Court, slightly damaging the home and a nearby car. The plane then flew into tall evergreen trees and flipped, coming to rest upside-down in a grassy area just east of the landing strip.

Oskvarek's sister picked him up at the scene before emergency crews arrived, his mother said. Authorities later found Oskvarek at a home in Woodridge and took him to Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, where he was treated for minor injuries and arrested upon his release.

Bob Siegfried, president of the air park's board of directors, said he saw no signs of alcohol or drugs inside the aircraft when he looked over the plane with an FAA inspector Sunday. sstclair@tribune.com